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I recently bought this costume as well and I'm looking for some advice on how to go about modifying it so it's a functional costume that I feel confident won't fall apart while wearing it.

I received it last week and all of the parts that you need are included, the helmet shape is really good and comfortable but the paint job is not exact, but should be sufficient for a casual Star Wars fan. I ordered the XL version and was apprehensive it wouldn't fit based on the majority of my clothes being XXL. I'm 6'3" and 270 lbs so I was very happy the jumpsuit fit as well as it did. I agree that this costume needs some major TLC as there's some glaring problems with the rest of the one I received. When I opened the box the left gauntlet's top laser was detached and appears to have been glued on with Elmers glue. There was also a tube on the right gauntlet that was detached as well that appears to have the same glue. The rocket on the jetpack was intact when I opened it, but broke off when my wife was helping me put it on (again with the same glue). I ended up exchanging it for a new one and told them to open it and make sure everything is intact before it's shipped back to me. I haven't received the replacement costume as of posting this thread. I assume the new one will be ok, but afraid it will be at risk of the same parts coming off in the future. Especially if I end up somewhere with a crowd of people and a part of the gauntlet or jetpack breaks off if I bump into someone. Also if you look at the pictures provided there isn't a zipper in the crotch, so to use the restroom you need to pull the jumpsuit down that involves taking off 95% of the costume.

The costume originally retails for $899 at halloweencostumes.com and is currently on sale for $599, thankfully I got it for much less.

I would appreciate any feedback and see if anyone else has done modifications to this particular costume. If you need the product# for any searching purposes it is RU909863.

Well, it depends how far you want to go with it. Most of us would have deterred someone from buying this in the first place as its very inaccurate and expensive for what you get. However if you got a good deal on it, and are not looking for ultra perfection, you may be able to work with it.

Anything that fell aprt the first time, may do so again. Mass produced costumes are not really well made. I would reattach anything that comes off with either epoxy or maybe even hotglue. Either would be better than what they used im sure

the worst parts are the ammobelt and girth belt by far. i would replace those. Again assuming your not looking for a top of the line costume...i would search e-bay for something better. You can find low end ones that are 100 times better than what comes with this. Of course you could go high end as well, but i guarantee once you get one high end part...you may end up replacing the whole suit.

You will probably want to change out the velcro for industral stregth velcro.

Id suggest repainting the entire suit

Thats probably the best you can do to make a nice halloween costume for a casual Star Wars fan.

All that said, If you want something that looks even remotely like most of the suits you see on here, im sad to say, you will need to replace everything. there really isnt one salvageable piece on it for a mid-high end Fett

Thanks for the info. I'm a bit nervous that darkening the visor tint may be the most difficult task. Is there any suggestions on how to attack it? I plan on sanding off the original paint on the helmet, jet pack, gauntlets, and repaint. I'll be detailing the skull on the shoulder armor as well. Is there a specific forum that you recommend here for paint selections? The chest armor coloring isn't that bad in person IMO so I'll see how everything looks with the changes to the other parts first.

It seems to me the actual gauntlets from the movie are different in Empire than ROTJ? I guess I've never really focused on if there was any difference between the two. It appears the gauntlets that come with this are closer to the ROTJ version.

I'm going to keep this thread going and post pics of before and after. Let me know if anyone wants specific angles of the costume before I dive into refurbishing it.

The ESB guants are green and the ROTJ gaunts are red, that's the easiest way to tell the difference. There is also the missile and flamethrower that is on the ESB that isn't on the ROTJ. The rubies suit is more ROTJ than ESB, if ESB is what you want there isn't really anything you could use. DVH who posted above does good paint work so ask him for pointers, as well as deadland and jayvee.

I'd like to weigh in here since I own this costume and can appreciate both sides of the coin. Even though I know metal247s heart was in the right place I totally agree with Darth Voorhees here. This costume at first seems like such a good deal because it has everything you need to instantly transform yourself into the most feared bounty hunter in the galaxy. However as you start to educate yourself on this extremely involved costume you really start to realize that unless you plan on just wearing this to a costume party it is totally lacking from head to toe. Dont get me wrong, I'm not trying to be negative here because I am/was in the same boat as you. I have been replacing parts on this costume for 2 years now. Like Voorhees said, once you replace one part you'll end up replacing everything. I'm in the process now of doing just that. First I replaced both belts because like it was stated above they're awful. Then I realized that the most important part of the costume was the helmet (IMO) so I replaced that next. The armor is too flat and even though I heated it up and bent it into the right shape that was replaced next. The gloves didn't fit right so I just recently upgraded them. You get my point. I will say I repainted and weathered the gauntlets and changed the clear chintzy hoses with real heavy duty serrated hoses but they're eventually going to go as well. I redid the Wookie braids adding beads and new ties and even soaked them in coffee to weather them but they're next. The flight suit isn't user friendly if you know what I mean so that eventually will be replaced as well. In the end what's left of the original costume? Not much. The jet pack maybe and I know when I get to that point it will go too. If you want to just have a cool costume this thing is workable but if you're thinking of 501st membership it's gonna be an uphill climb. Feel free to message me if you'd like some basic suggestions on how to upgrade what you have in front of you. Obviously if you choose to go in the other direction the guys here on this site will not steer you wrong! In any event good luck!
Doug

I'd like to weigh in here since I own this costume and can appreciate both sides of the coin. Even though I know metal247s heart was in the right place I totally agree with Darth Voorhees here. This costume at first seems like such a good deal because it has everything you need to instantly transform yourself into the most feared bounty hunter in the galaxy. However as you start to educate yourself on this extremely involved costume you really start to realize that unless you plan on just wearing this to a costume party it is totally lacking from head to toe. Dont get me wrong, I'm not trying to be negative here because I am/was in the same boat as you. I have been replacing parts on this costume for 2 years now. Like Voorhees said, once you replace one part you'll end up replacing everything. I'm in the process now of doing just that. First I replaced both belts because like it was stated above they're awful. Then I realized that the most important part of the costume was the helmet (IMO) so I replaced that next. The armor is too flat and even though I heated it up and bent it into the right shape that was replaced next. The gloves didn't fit right so I just recently upgraded them. You get my point. I will say I repainted and weathered the gauntlets and changed the clear chintzy hoses with real heavy duty serrated hoses but they're eventually going to go as well. I redid the Wookie braids adding beads and new ties and even soaked them in coffee to weather them but they're next. The flight suit isn't user friendly if you know what I mean so that eventually will be replaced as well. In the end what's left of the original costume? Not much. The jet pack maybe and I know when I get to that point it will go too. If you want to just have a cool costume this thing is workable but if you're thinking of 501st membership it's gonna be an uphill climb. Feel free to message me if you'd like some basic suggestions on how to upgrade what you have in front of you. Obviously if you choose to go in the other direction the guys here on this site will not steer you wrong! In any event good luck!
Doug

I really appreciate the feedback and agree that there are a lot of things wrong with the costume. After the belts one of the biggest issues IMO is the vest. Rubies interpretation of a neck seal isn't even close to being accurate. The vest is made out of a super thick polyester material and looks really, really bad. If you're a large person like myself you become a Stay Puft Marshmallow Fett. I've have already ordered a new vest & neck seal from batninja:

I originally said that the armor wasn't that bad earlier... well, after paying more attention to how the real armor looks in the gallery along with seeing pics of RDK & FP's armor I've decided to replace that too. Man, the Rubies armor is so bad it gave me nightmares. A friend of mine jodiamond1 is helping me repaint the jet pack and gauntlets along with hardware modifications. I'll be posting pics when they're complete. I plan on printing an adhesive decal at Alpha Graphics here in Minneapolis of the Mythosaur skull from RafalFett's template: http://www.thedentedhelmet.com/f25/b...tencils-42480/ The knee armor doesn't seem that bad, but it probably helps I've never seen a legit version in person.

I'll be posting pics comparing the vest/neck seal and ammo belt with the Rubies versions to hopefully help others not make the same decision I did. At this point my heart really goes out to those that paid $899 for this mockery. I also checked the website I bought it from and nobody has given a review on it yet which will be remedied in the near future I assure you. A major positive that DID come out of buying the Rubies costume is that I found TDH and not sure I ever would have otherwise. I've gained valuable knowledge about this hobby that I never thought was a possibility for a technically ignorant dude such as myself. The members here have been so helpful including those that have posted to this thread, I truly am grateful.

Once I'm done with all of the left-over Rubies stuff does anyone think it's worth throwing up on eBay for like 5 bucks or something?

I received this and all of the parts that you need are included, the helmet shape is decent and with a good paint job you'd have a pretty good Fett helmet and should be sufficient for a casual Star Wars fan. But there are some glaring problems with the rest of the one I received. When I opened the box the left gauntlet's top laser was detached and appears to have been glued on with Elmers glue. A tube on the right gauntlet was detached that appears to have the same glue. The rocket on the jetpack was intact when I opened it, but broke off when my wife was helping me put it on (again with the same glue). I ended up exchanging it for a new one and told them to open it and make sure everything is intact before it's shipped back to me. The customer support person I talked to was very helpful and agreed to ship me out a new one and emailed me a packing slip to send it back free of charge.

I received the replacement costume and everything was intact except one of the tubes on the right gauntlet. At this point I did some research and discovered the forum thedentedhelmet.com which is an amazing resource and found many other people who have purchased this same costume with the similar issues and more.

More problems I discovered is there isn't a zipper in the crotch, so to use the restroom you need to pull the jumpsuit down that involves taking off 95% of the costume. The belts are not real leather or wool but are made out of a rubber/plastic mold and don't look screen accurate.

After the belts one of the biggest issues IMO is the vest & neck seal. The neck seal isn't even close to being screen accurate. The vest is made out of a super thick polyester material and looks very bulky on a large person like myself. The jet pack shape isn't half bad and is very light for it's size but you may need some epoxy glue to keep parts in place. Overall the paint job on all of the hardware is very, very poor. And after all that there's more issues that I could go over but won't.

If you're looking for a halloween costume this seems like a great idea to become the most feared bounty hunter in the galaxy, but after you pay $899 or $549 or $429 you quickly realize that the quality just isn't up to par for something as detailed as a Fett costume. And if you're like me I was expecting much more for the price I paid and am now in the process of replacing and or modifying the entire costume. Before purchasing this I implore you to do more research.

I put together a spreadsheet showing what I think needs to be modified, replaced or kept as is. I want to make it clear that I'm in no way promoting purchasing this Rubies costume, but if someone buys one and doesn't have an option of returning it, could use this and tweak it as they wish. PM me if you would like me to email it to you as I don't see an option to attach a .xls file.

I came close to buying the supreme Rubies suit for Hallowe'en myself... I did go with the deluxe edition ($100) and the vinyl Rubies helmet ($70) for this halloween. it was a group/band Star Wars costume with Luke, Han, Lando, and me as Boba all sporting the Rubies Deluxe versions. Good enough for a couple halloween gigs, but by the end of the second night the costumes were literally falling apart at the seams.

Sorry for the delay. Here's some side by side pics comparing my Rubies belt with BooBoo Fett's ROTJ SE. My apologies for my wife's skill behind the camera. BBF's belt is stunning and there are no comparisons between the two. As you can see in the pic of the Rubies belt the ammo pouches not only don't resemble pouches but they're spaced too far apart. And the back of the Rubies belt doesn't even come close to show actual grommets. At least they could have cut out holes, eh? The texture of the Rubies belt is like it's made from the same stuff that fake poop is made of. I could go on and on about the flaws with it obviously.

I had to hold my BBF belt in place with my hand as I haven't attached the velcro yet. I'm still needing to acquire a girth belt but need to wait till my FP cod & kidney plate arrive to get the correct measurements. Does anybody have a suggestion of what length of girth to order based on your waist size so that there's not too wide or too short of a gap for the elastic strap?

The easiest way to darken the visor would be to either use window tint, or preferably to remove it and put in a brand new acrylic visor. An acrylic visor would help increase the durability of the helmet due to the material's thickness.

As promised I've got pics comparing the Rubies vest/neck seal w/ Batninja's. Like I said before the Rubies vest/neck seal are the worst parts of the suit IMO. It just feels too bulky and is made out of a rough/scratchy type of fabric that I have no clue what it is since there isn't any tag on it. Batninja's vest & neck seal have such a better look and feel and there's just not enough words to describe how great they are.

Here's side by side pics of my repainted Rubies bucket. The original stalk was replaced with a FP and as you can see the old one was way too short. An additional layer of visor tint was taped to the inside of the helmet that blackened it out really good. Cheers to Fett4Real for his mastery on "Polishing The Turd".

Good god man that vest is awful (Rubie's of course lol). They couldn't even get the direction right of the 'ribs' on the sleeves?? It looks like it's made out of a foam type of material, weird...I guess whatever cheapest material they could find right?
As for the helmet, wow...what a difference a paint job can make. Dom did a great job on it!

They couldn't even get the direction right of the 'ribs' on the sleeves??

I seriously didn't notice that at all. Just goes to show you that not only are there huge discrepancies on the materials they used on the suit but the minor details like the sleeves along with the inside seams of the cape being horizontal and not vertical.

I'm in the same boat as shteymetal247 - although when I bought my Rubie's suit, it was specifically for two things:

1. Just wearing out for Halloween one night.
2. Getting some practice at re-painting/painting techniques.

I knew from the get-go I wasn't going to keep the suit. I got it cheap, and can easily re-sell on eBay and make back most of what I paid for it.

I am however interested in (if your offer stands for n00bs such as myself) your advice for tuning the suit I have before I re-sell it.

I know I'll have to upgrade a few components right away - I have been doing a fair bit of research on this when I have time available - but for the stuff that's staying, I'd like to know how to maximize what I have.

Thanks in advance for any tips!

Carbonfreeze said:

I'd like to weigh in here since I own this costume and can appreciate both sides of the coin. Even though I know metal247s heart was in the right place I totally agree with Darth Voorhees here. This costume at first seems like such a good deal because it has everything you need to instantly transform yourself into the most feared bounty hunter in the galaxy. However as you start to educate yourself on this extremely involved costume you really start to realize that unless you plan on just wearing this to a costume party it is totally lacking from head to toe. Dont get me wrong, I'm not trying to be negative here because I am/was in the same boat as you. I have been replacing parts on this costume for 2 years now. Like Voorhees said, once you replace one part you'll end up replacing everything. I'm in the process now of doing just that. First I replaced both belts because like it was stated above they're awful. Then I realized that the most important part of the costume was the helmet (IMO) so I replaced that next. The armor is too flat and even though I heated it up and bent it into the right shape that was replaced next. The gloves didn't fit right so I just recently upgraded them. You get my point. I will say I repainted and weathered the gauntlets and changed the clear chintzy hoses with real heavy duty serrated hoses but they're eventually going to go as well. I redid the Wookie braids adding beads and new ties and even soaked them in coffee to weather them but they're next. The flight suit isn't user friendly if you know what I mean so that eventually will be replaced as well. In the end what's left of the original costume? Not much. The jet pack maybe and I know when I get to that point it will go too. If you want to just have a cool costume this thing is workable but if you're thinking of 501st membership it's gonna be an uphill climb. Feel free to message me if you'd like some basic suggestions on how to upgrade what you have in front of you. Obviously if you choose to go in the other direction the guys here on this site will not steer you wrong! In any event good luck!
Doug

It really comes down to your own evaluation of the Rubies individual parts and how much you want to spend on either buying already built parts, kits or using tutorials and building from scratch. The third post on this thread from DVH helped me out greatly because he pointed out that the worst parts of the suit being the ammo belt and girth belt which I replaced first. And if you get a BooBooFett ammo belt (which is the best belt you can buy) or even make your own along with ordering a new Ovaition Girth you'll see the significant difference in person. Something that I just discovered recently is that on the inside of the Rubies ammo belt there is an elastic strap that you can use for attaching a real girth belt should you choose to replace it. The Rubies vest is one of the worst parts IMO but might not be as big of a deal to yourself or others, again depends on your preference. Once I received my vest & neck seal that I ordered from BatNinja I pretty much teared up because they are so awesome. I ended up cutting off the pouches that were attached to the Rubies vest and will be sewing a loop with the extra material into them and attach to a nylon belt which I'll wear underneath my girth belt. If you decide to keep the jet pack and replace the vest be sure to either find a different solution on attaching it to the new vest or you can do what I did which was removing the straps on the old vest and sewing them onto the new one. But make sure that the collar amor hides the straps better then the Rubies version does. The armor IMO had to be replaced based on the paint job but mostly because it's not rounded therefore just lays flat on the vest. I'll post pics of them in the near future as well. The shin tools are adequate IMO. I decided to have the bucket repainted by Fett4Real and I'm getting help from a friend of mine with repainting the jet pack and gauntlets. The jet pack shape isn't that bad IMO and if you use some epoxy or hot glue where the rocket attaches and where the side jets attach (the jet on the left side of mine was cracked and could easily be knocked off by bumping into somebody at a busy halloween party). The cape doesn't have any weathering so I used a template I found here and cut holes and weathered it up and is going to do the job. Here's the thread with the template I used and is the PDF on the 4th post.

Hope this helps. And come back to this thread in the near future as I'll be posting pics of my completed Rubies overhaul.

DJMarcO138 said:

I'm in the same boat as shteymetal247 - although when I bought my Rubie's suit, it was specifically for two things:

1. Just wearing out for Halloween one night.
2. Getting some practice at re-painting/painting techniques.

I knew from the get-go I wasn't going to keep the suit. I got it cheap, and can easily re-sell on eBay and make back most of what I paid for it.

I am however interested in (if your offer stands for n00bs such as myself) your advice for tuning the suit I have before I re-sell it.

I know I'll have to upgrade a few components right away - I have been doing a fair bit of research on this when I have time available - but for the stuff that's staying, I'd like to know how to maximize what I have.